Today I spent the day at an elementary school, booktalking 17 classes of kids from 1st through 5th grades, in preparation for their book fair next week. (Their PTO is turning over $4 in credit to each kid to be redeemed for a book of their choice.)

The A-number-1 book they wanted to see and hear about was Holes by Louis Sachar, because of the movie.

I didn't talk it too much, because it needed no push from me to sell, only the knowledge that it was in the big silver cases from Scholastic. The dozen or so copies in the cases will be gone on Monday by 10 AM. Everyone else will have to order and wait, unless the chair orders extras.

READ THE BOOK, people. It's wonderful, it's entertaining, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and the good guys win, but in such a bizarre and unexpected way that I, who reads enough kids' books to be able to sense most solutions between two chapters and half the book ahead of time, was amazed by this one.

Now-- after you read the book, go to the movie. For once, you won't be disappointed by the film's realization of the story, due partly to Louis Sachar having written the screen adaptation of his Newbery Award winning novel.

The other part is all character acting. Jon Voight, Sigourney Weaver, and Tim Blake Nelson as the trio of inept villains overplay in true melodrama fashion. Patricia Arquette and Dule Hill put tenderness into the historical flashback. Henry Winkler will give everyone a real turn -- a good one. But the palm goes to the boys playing the inmates of Camp Green Lake, especially Shia LaBeouf as Stanley and Khleo Thomas as Zero. They make it real.

I say again: read the book first. Think about Catch-22. It's that kind of movie -- without the bombs and the rape.

Read the book with your kids. See the movie with them too.

Regards--
Mary Anne